The present invention relates generally to the electronic communication between electronic components. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention are related to systems that use Near Field Communication (NFC) or other smart card technology along with an EEPROM to store system configuration data.
In recent years there has been a significant increase in the amount and use of mobile devices such as cell phones and personal data assistants (PDA's). This trend is expected to continue as more consumers become more driven to maintain personal communications as they transit to and from various locations. The demand to be more mobile and not weighed by cumbersome instruments is placing demands on the communications industry to produce smaller, cheaper, and more easy to use devices.
Previously, peripheral devices were connected to the host device through a communications cable. Bluetooth technology replaced the cables and maintained the requisite level of data security. Generally, a Bluetooth enabled peripheral device can connect to other Bluetooth enabled devices in its proximity. These devices connect through a synchronized short range network known as a piconet. Each device may communicate with up to seven separate devices within a piconet. Each Bluetooth enabled device may also belong to several separate piconets simultaneously. Once a Bluetooth enabled device is synchronized within its piconet network, the device that provides the synchronization is referred to as the master and all the other devices within the piconet are referred to as the slaves.
Bluetooth mobile peripheral devices have been developed to enable consumers to utilize their mobile phones, Bluetooth enabled PDA's, and mobile computer devices (hereinafter “mobile device”) without a cumbersome cable tethering one device to another. Peripheral devices, such as Bluetooth enabled headsets are convenient, but must be authenticated with a single mobile device to form the piconet there between. This process of authentication is also known as pairing.
Presently, pairing is accomplished by the user manually entering the PIN of the Bluetooth enabled headset into the mobile device. After entering the PIN, the two devices exchange configuration information such as the link key. The headset stores the configuration data in an Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) and utilizes this data to re-authenticate with the mobile device. This process of manual pairing by the user enables the mobile device to find the headset, connect to it wirelessly, authenticate the headset, and then encrypt the link. The consumer cannot effectively pair or program a Bluetooth peripheral headset or other Bluetooth peripheral device (ex. Printer audio device, or other mobile device etc.,) via any other mechanism than with the manual process of the user inputting information required to establish the pairing. Such a manual process is cumbersome and potentially prone to user's mistakes and to third party security attacks.